Tremellogaster surinamensis is a South American sequestrate species. Even though there are only seven records available, it is likely very under recorded so population size is estimated at 35000 individuals. It may be subjected to some habitat loss through deforestation, particularly in Colombia, but rates do not meet criteria for threatened categories. Therefore, the species is assessed as Least Concern (LC).
Type and only species in the Tremellogaster genus, established based on its morphological characteristics, but since confirmed in phylogenetic studies (Wilson et al. 2012).
Known from the northern part of South America, from Suriname, Guyana, Colombia (Amazonas and Caquetá) and Venezuela (Franco-Molano, 2005).
T. surinamensis is known from at least 7 sites: 3 in Guyana (GBIF.org, 2023), 1 in Suriname and at least 2 in Colombia (described for 2 districts) and 1 in Venezuela. However, the number of known sites in these countries is not documented and is likely larger. This species is considered uncommon, both in Guyana (Linder, 1930) and Colombia (Franco-Molano, 2005), but since it is known from local indigenous people, has a wide distribution in Northern South America and has inconspicuous fruitbodies, it is assumed to be very under recorded. Therefore, a large multiplier is applied for total number of sites (x500) and following guidelines by Dahlberg and Mueller (2011), population size is estimated at around 35000 individuals, assuming 10 mature individuals exist per site.
There may be some population decline mainly in Colombia and to a lesser extent in Venezuela through habitat loss, but is not expected to be very high across the whole range of the species.
Population Trend: Decreasing
T. surinamensis is a sequestrate species that grows on soil, solitary or gregarious, and is presumed to be ectomycorrhizal (Tedersoo et al., 2009). Found on sandy soil, near a swamp in Guyana (Linder, 1930) and in mature forests in Colombia (Franco-Molano, 2005).
Since mature forests are a habitat for this species, deforestation caused by cattle ranching, agricultural expansion (namely coca cultivation) and mining could present a threat to this species. (Gonzalez-Gonzalez et al. 2021) Global Forest Watch (2023) shows a percentage of tree cover loss (>30% canopy density) of 4% for Venezuela and bellow 2% in Guyana and Suriname between 2001 and 2021. Colombia shows the higher levels of deforestation for this period (6%), which corresponds to 15% in 50 years (3 generation period for ectomycorrhizal species following Dahlberg and Mueller (2011)), assuming a continuing rate of forest loss.
Habitat protection, particularly of mature forests in Colombia, is important to prevent population declines for this species in this region.
More search efforts are needed to better estimate number of sites and population size for T. surinamensis, as well as research into host and habitat preference to help evaluate potential threats.
Known and avoided by Colombian indigenous communities, who associate it with skin mycosis (Franco-Molano, 2005).
Country | Trend | Redlisted |
---|